The poems second argument is marked with a discourse marker, in this case “But”. The poems second argument is why the woman is better then summer, Shakespeare says “Sommers lease hath all too short a date….but thy eternall sommer shall not fade” Shakespeare is saying that summer ends and fades, but you never will.
The last two lines of “Shall I Compare Thee”, “So long as men can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” The first thing I noticed about the final couplet is that they are indented from the rest of the text; I believe this is to give this final couplet the feel of a conclusion. These two lines mean that as long as people can read then this woman’s beauty will live forever and that in the poem she can never die.
In “The Flea” the poems first argument is when Donne uses the flea to add impact and emphasise his point that her losing her virginity is not a big deal. He says it has already sucked from him and from her and that in this flea their blood is mingled. Donne uses this type of sexual innuendo a lot in this poem. After Donne says this the woman tries to kill the flea. When this happens Donne changes the direction he was going with his argument and starts to say that this flea is a very big deal, that they have been married inside this flea and that if she kills it she will commit not just one crime but in killing the flea she will commit three crimes, suicide, and two counts of murder (Donne and the flea) this type of argument is called a syllogistic argument.
There are several points of comparison in these two poems but the main one is that the two poets feel very differently about the women they are addressing, Shakespeare is trying to persuade his lover that he loves her. Donne is trying to persuade his lover to have sex with him!
The attitude of the poet towards the lady in “Shall I Compare Thee” is that the woman is above him and he is swooning after her, it is almost as if she is his god and the love is painful.
The attitude of the poet towards the lady in “The Flea” is a lot different from how Shakespeare treats his lady; Donne uses commands and treats her as if she is lower then him. He tries to manipulate her physically then he manipulates her emotionally when she kills the fleas. Even thought Donne is trying to control the woman in “The Flea” we learn she is not a push-over as she defies Donne by killing the flea. The two women have different roles in both poems Shakespeare’s woman is a passive image of perfection, and Donne’s woman is much more active in the poem.
The language in “Shall I Compare Thee” can at some points be quite hard to understand, “more Temperate” means unlike summers weather; either too hot or too cold, she is a perfect temperature. “Darling buds of maie” means the very first vulnerable buds of spring, Shakespeare is trying to saying she is delicate. “Every faire from faire” means that nothing is perfect forever; Shakespeare says this so he can say later that he has the ability to make her perfect forever in this poem. “Natures changing course” means that things are vulnerable to time passing.
Line eleven in “Shall I Compare Thee” is different from the rest of the poem because it directly mentions death it says “Nor shall brag thou wandr’st in his shade” this means that because the poet has immortalised her in the poem, death can never brag about getting her. The language used in “Shall I Compare Thee” sets a light tone all the words used such as “Shine”, “Golden and “Faire” are all positive words.
The extended image of the flea in “The Flea” is clever because Donne has been able to make a love poem, and been able to seduce a woman using a flea! He does this by using the flea to support a wide range of arguments in the first stanza, Donne says the flea has sucked blood from both of them so they have already been united in this flea Donne also says the flea “Enjoys” this contact and the flea is “pamper’d” and that it “Swells” this use of suggestive language creates sexual innuendo in the first stanza. In the second stanza Donne; still trying to convince the woman they are almost married inside the flea, calls the flea there “Marriage bed” and “Marriage Temple” this is Donne saying it is ok for them to have sex now because they are already married inside the flea. In the third after the flea Donne had pinned all his hopes on convincing her to have sex with him is killed, he says the woman has committed three crimes, she has committed a sin by killing a animal, she has committed murder because there is a bit of Donne in the flea and worst of all she has committed suicide.
The meaning of the metaphor “Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met and cloistered in these living walls of jet.” This means that even thought parents grudge they live together inside the jet black walls of the flea. In “The Flea” there are a lot of words that have religious connotations such as “Marriage”, “Temple”, “Cloisters”, “sacrilege” and “sins” these words are used because in the 16th century religion had a much stronger role to play in peoples relationships then it does today, and Donne knows that if he can convince this woman that them having sex is ok in the eyes of god, the chances of him being able to sleep with her are much higher.
The tone of “Shall I Compare Thee” is quite conformist to the love poem genre, it is romantic, compared to the tone of “The Flea” which is harsh and smutty, with deceiving language, “The Flea” does not take itself seriously and is supposed to be humorous.
The rhyme scheme, layout and form of “Shall I Compare Thee” both conform perfectly with the classical Shakespearean sonnet. The rhyme scheme for the three quatrains and couplet is ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG. The metrical form is again true to the traditional love poem formula, with ten syllables to each line, and it also has iambic pentameter. There are only two sentences in the entire poem are facets on just one argument.
The rhyme scheme, layout and form of “The Flea” are again non-conformist to the traditional love poem formula; the rhyme scheme for the first stanza is AA/BB/CC/DDD. The poem is laid out in three stanzas to represent each new twist of Donne’s syllogistic argument.
I believe both of these love poems are enjoyable because “Shall I Compare Thee” is a great example of a technically sound, classical love poem, and “The Flea” on the other hand is a refreshing alternative to the technically sound, classical love poem (With a comical twist).
My study of love poetry has changed the way I think about love poetry I don’t think love poetry is one specific thing anymore I know there are at least two different variations, and I expect there are many more.
